An integrated circuit includes one or more regions or layers of conductive material that are isolated from other conductive regions or conductive layers. Such isolation may be in the form of junction isolation by juxtaposing such regions or layers of different doping next to one another. Isolation can also be achieved dielectrically by providing a dielectric region, layer, or structure between selected conductive regions and between selected transistors or other devices in the integrated circuit. In certain devices, the entire integrated circuit is insulated from bulk substrate material by providing a buried dielectric layer. Such devices are termed silicon-on-insulator or SOI devices due to a buried insulative layer which isolates the active devices from the bulk silicon of the substrate. Certain SOI devices may also be formed using a bonded wafer technique. With that technique, a device wafer is bonded to a silicon dioxide surface layer of a handle wafer. Thus, the bonded wafer has a buried dielectric layer beneath the device wafer.
While the above SOI techniques provide for vertical electrical dielectric isolation, other techniques laterally insulate adjacent transistors or devices. One such technique provides trenches around the devices. The trenches are patterned in the surface of the semiconductor substrate in which devices are formed or are to be formed. Such prior art trench isolation processes are performed early in the process of fabricating an integrated circuit, prior to the major diffusions that form the transistors and other devices and before completion of thick thermal oxide growth. The trenches are filled with dielectric material and polysilicon. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,558, the trench in the substrate is filled with an oxide provided by thermal oxidation of the substrate material that forms the walls and floor of the trench. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,919, the trench in the substrate is filled with a thermal oxide during the step of local thermal oxidation. Such a so-called LOCOS step is generally performed after substantial diffusions form larger regions of the devices, e.g. after formation of the collector regions in bipolar devices or after the formation of well regions in MOS devices. LOCOS is a common step in the fabrication of many, but not all, devices. However, most devices include a step of thermal oxidation where an oxide layer is grown and the thickness of the oxide layer exceeds 500 Angstroms.
Such prior art techniques have encountered or been the source of problems. Since the oxide that seals the sidewalls of the trench is thermally grown early in the prior art fabrication of the integrated circuit, the exposed top surface of the sidewall oxide is subject to etching that occurs later in the fabrication processes. In some cases an oxide etch may remove trench sidewall oxide, for example, in the complete oxide strip common before pad oxide growth in LOCOS processes. If the trench is filled with polysilicon or other material, the desired electrical insulation of the trench may be reduced and thereby affect i.e., have an effect on! the overall reliability of the device. It has also been observed that crystal damage results from excess sidewall oxide growth. As pointed out above, the trench is formed and dielectrically isolated early in the fabrication of the integrated circuit. However, the oxide in the filled trench (particularly the oxide at the exposed top surface) will continue to grow when the wafer is subject to subsequent thermal oxide processes, e.g., the LOCOS step. During thermal oxidation, the substrate material, typically silicon, combines with oxygen to form silicon dioxide. So, each oxidized silicon atoms grows by the volume of two oxygen atoms. A molecule of silicon dioxide has approximately twice the volume of an atom of silicon. Such thermal oxidation effectively doubles the volume of the silicon. If the trench sidewall oxide growth is excessive, mechanical stresses are created by the trench oxide expansion and those stresses generate crystalline lattice defects in adjacent silicon device regions. Such defects increase device leakage and reduce overall yield. Such excess thermal oxide growth may also occur during any high temperature processing step such as diffusions and drive in of implants.
Still another problem encountered with early trench isolation has been the necessity to fill the trench with polysilicon. Once that occurs, the substrate must be mechanically planarized to render the polysilicon-filled trenches level with the adjacent oxide layer.